Being safe and feeling safe
4 young children at a desk with their hands in the air

Being safe, and feeling safe

You have the right to feel safe and be safe.  This includes when you are at school, sport, church, clubs, out-of-home care, and any activities you are involved in.A bitmoji of Jodie with her ear cupped by her hand, listening

You need adults to be safe people. Adults who work in the places you go, must:

  • listen to you,
  • believe what you tell them, and
  • work with you to find solutions.

Your right to have a say about decisions that affect you is an important part of keeping you safe. Learn more here.

Organisations must be safe for you

Services for kids, teens and young people must do 10 things to make sure you are safe.Preview of a poster with the 10 child safe standards

  1. People who provide services care about keeping you safe and well and have systems and processes to make sure everyone understands why this is important.
  2. Services make sure you know your rights and you are involved in making decisions that affect you.
  3. Your family and your community are told about how services are being made safer, and how they can help to keep you safe and well.
  4. All kids, teens, young people, families, and people working in services are treated fairly and with respect, and services have systems to help make sure this happens.
  5. Services that work with you have workers who are safe grown-ups. Workers get support to make sure they can keep you safe and well, and they know how to help if there is a problem.
  6. Services make sure you, your family and other people in the community know how to speak up if they are worried about things that people in the service are doing.
  7. Workers know how to keep you safe and well, and keep learning new things to help them be safe grown-ups.
  8. Services find ways to make sure physical and online spaces where you spend time are safer.
  9. Services that work with you check their systems and processes often and keep looking for new ways to make their services safer.
  10. Services write down the ways they keep you safe, and make sure this is easy to read and understand by anyone who wants to read it.

You can download a poster of these steps here.

What does feeling safe mean to you?

It is important adults know what feeling safe means to you, and what adults can do to show they are listening.

Some kids, teens and young people we spoke to told us what makes them feel safe.

A cartoon of a diverse group of young people with speech bubbles above them saying what makes them feel safe.

  • I feel understood. This means I am being listened to and cared about.
  • I feel believed. I can tell someone about my worries and trust them to do something to help make things better.
  • I am respected for being me. I can wear what I want, share my beliefs, and be involved in my culture.
  • I am valued. I can say what I think, need, or want even if it is different to what other people think.
  • I can speak up. I can say no if someone touches me or speaks to me in ways I do not like. I can tell a trusted adult when I have concerns, and I know they will do something about it .

If you need help

If you feel worried or confused, it is important you tell a safe person who will listen, believe you, and help you. You can find out more about talking to adults about safety here.

Contact JodieA bitmoji of Jodie with the words 'How can I help?' above her

Jodie is your Children and Young People Commissioner. Her job is to make sure that Canberra and the ACT is better for all kids, teens, and young people.

She helps make organisations safer for you.

If you want to tell Jodie something that will help keep you and other kids, teens, and young people safe, you can contact Jodie by clicking here.

Make a complaint

If you are worried about how you have been treated, or you feel scared, or have been hurt, you have the right to tell someone who will believe you and treat you with respect.

You can make a complaint about a person or an organisation. This can include:

  • the way an adult is treating you, or
  • how adults have dealt with the way that your peers are behaving or treating you.

If you want to know more about making a complaint, or want someone to help you make a complaint, you can contact Jodie or fill out a complaint here.

Tell us what we can do

If you want to tell Jodie something that will help keep you and other kids, teens, and young people safe and well, you can contact Jodie or her team by clicking here.